A Part of the Game
by makemebelieve11
Summary: Rachel Barclay is new to the Valley the summer after Smalls moved to town. Now she lives with her father and his fiancee Melissa and her annoying daughter Chelsea. Watch her deal with her family, the sandlot boys, and growing up.
1. Chapter 1

**Intro/Chapter 1: Hello**

It was 1963 in "the Valley", as they call it. I looked up the small, blue house. It was surrounded by flowers and trees in the "perfect" little neighborhood, as my father described it. I watched as Melissa ran out with open arms, hugging my father. Chelsea stood at the door, arms crossed.

They're going to be our family soon. Soon, Melissa and my dad will marry and Chelsea and I will be step-sisters. I didn't mind Melissa, she was nice and my dad loves her. Chelsea on the other hand, well, we couldn't be more opposite. Looks-wise, Chelsea is by far considered more attractive. Her red hair flattered her olive skin tone and her blue eyes popped. She always wore the nicest dresses and wore her hair in bows. I have brown hair that's always kept in a braid and green eyes, the only thing remotely pretty that I have. I wear jeans and t-shirts all the time, complete with my crummy old sneakers. Chelsea was bubbly and sweet, well, when she wasn't around me. I tend to be shy, sarcastic, and competitive.

I walked up to the front door with a big box in my arms. Inside it was all of my precious belongings, which will be in my new room. I side-stepped through the door to get around Chelsea, but she stuck her arm out to stop me. "Your room is upstairs on the left."

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

"Not just yet. We have a few things to talk about."

I rolled my eyes. We were the same age, and she always acts like she's the boss. She led me to my room and let me put my stuff on the bed. The walls were painted blue, and tiny flowers were scattered all around. Not exactly my forte, but this will have to do for now.

"Don't go in my room unless I ask you to." Chelsea said with a stern voice.

"…I wasn't going to anyway."

"Don't follow me around at school. Just because we're going to be step-sisters, doesn't mean we're best friends."

"But it's summer."

She scoffed. "Must you always contradict everything I say?"

All I could do was simply shrug, and that's when Melissa and father walked inside my room. "I hope you like it, Rachel. Chelsea told me your favorite color was blue and you loved flowers." She smiled.

I smiled back, taking turns looking from Melissa's innocent smile to Chelsea's devilish stare. "I do. Thank you so much."

"Chelsea," my father had started to say, "Would you mind taking Rach around town? I want her to see what it's like out here."

"Sure thing, Kevin." She immediately took my hand, and raced out of the house.

* * *

"Finally I can leave." Chelsea sighed as we walked outside.

"So, where are we going?" I asked, trying to keep up with her.

"_I'm_ going to my friend Sarah's house. You're going to wait outside for a little bit and not get lost."

I shoved my hands in my pockets and rolled my eyes at her again. "Are you embarrassed by me or something?"

"No. It's just that I didn't think you'd want to go to some boring, pool party. And if I brought in an unexpected guest, Sarah would kill me!"

"Right." I said, annoyed.

When we finally reached the house, Chelsea told me to wait and she'll hurry up. She walked inside, and practically slammed the door to shut me out for good.

It had been 15 minutes since she had left me out here. I sighed as I sat down on the sidewalk. Suddenly, a shadow had appeared on the ground. It got bigger and bigger and bigger. I looked up into the sky and watched as the mystery object fell to the ground.

It was a baseball. Sitting there. Taunting me. I walked over to it and picked it up, looking around for where it might have come from. I went around Sarah's picket fence and found what they call "the sandlot". A group of boys stood in the middle, arguing with and punching some kid in the shoulder. As I got closer I started to hear some of the conversation.

"You lost the ball for us, genius!"

"Damn it, Ham."

"Yeah, yeah!"

They suddenly stopped and watched as I looked at them. I held out the ball. "Um, is this yours?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: A Competition**

I watched as the boys lifted their heads up and quickly stopped speaking. Some of them scratched their heads and another one spit onto the ground.

I rolled my eyes. Ugh, boys. "Can someone answer my question?"

The boys all looked at the tallest in the group, a Hispanic boy who wore a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap. He glanced at all of them and stepped forward. "Yeah, that's our ball. Hand it over." He said coolly.

I tossed it over to them underhand and they all chuckled a bit. "What?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"You wouldn't get it, you don't play baseball." The fat one said.

I looked at them in disgust. "You can't just say that!"

"Can too! You just threw it underhand! It's so…" He made a thinking face and the other boys laughed. "Girly."

"Oh, so telling someone they play like a girl is an insult?" I narrowed my eyes at them.

The Dodgers boy spoke over them. "Hey, hey, let's give her a chance."

"But Benny, we don't want to play with a girl."

"Yeah, did you see her throw that ball?"

I dropped my hands to my side. "Bring it on! I love showing people up!"

The boys all made their own remarks about how I was 'terrifying' and pretended to cry because they were so afraid, and then they all patted each other on the back as they died from laughter.

I made my way over to the plate and grabbed the nearest bat. I fixed my stance and waited for the boys to set themselves up. In my head all I could think was how over my head I was. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I'm going through all of this trouble just to prove to a bunch of boys how tough I was.

"Ready?" The pitcher yelled.

I looked around and saw as the Dodgers boy was leaning against the dugout, ready to watch me swing.

The fat boy kneeled behind me and readied his glove. "Sweetheart, he's talking to you."

I turned my head to the pitcher and nodded. He took a second to look at me, and then readied his arm. He winded up and pitched overhand. The ball was thrown so quickly that I forgot to swing. The fat boy reached his glove out and caught the ball.

"You're supposed to swing at the ball, ya know?" He said as he threw it back to the pitcher. I ignored his comment and readied my bat again.

Another pitch was thrown, and this time I swung. I looked around to see where the ball had been thrown, and I couldn't make it out where it went.

The pitcher laughed as he got the ball thrown back to him from the fat boy. I didn't even touch the ball, I swung too early.

I sighed and let go of the bat. "This isn't even my sport."

"Then what is your sport, sweetheart?" The fat boy stood up.

I smirked. "I run."

The boys tried to hide their smiling faces. They looked over at the Dodgers boy.

"Benny is the fastest one here. He could beat you any day, anytime, anywhere."

He looked over at me and then walked towards me. By then all the boys were surrounding us, listening intently to what Benny had to say.

I glared at him. To my surprise, he stuck his hand out. "I'm Benny Rodriguez."

I looked from his face to his hand and forced myself to shake it. "Rachel Barclay."

"Race! Race! Race!" The boys chanted.

He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Well, are you going to challenge me to a race or not? Or are you just lying again and you can't even jog without getting tired."

I scrunched my nose. "Game on!"

"What the hell is this?" A voice said out of nowhere.

We all turned our attention to the newcomer; Chelsea. Her hands were on her hips as she marched across the field and over to us. She glared at me. "What are you doing hanging out with them? I told you to stay put!"

The boys were all taken aback, even Benny.

"I wasn't going to bore myself and wait an hour for you outside by myself. Plus, I had to return something."

"Alright, well you did it so let's get out of here." Chelsea grabbed my arm before the fat boy stepped in front of her.

"Hey Chelsea Lowell." He sung.

She was visibly annoyed. "Hammy, beat it."

"Oh he does." One of the kids joked. Ham shot them a look.

"Do you know how to play baseball?"

"No, I don't." She tried to step around him, but he blocked her.

"You and your friend should come by more often. I can teach you."

"So can I!" Followed another boy, then others.

"She's not my friend. She's my soon to be step-sister." I said.

Ham looked at Benny and the latter sighed. "Chelsea, we'd like to invite you to a racing competition we're having."

"Don't care." She dragged me away.

"No it's important!" I shouted at her.

Chelsea stared at me. "You're racing Benny?"

I nodded and smiled. She tried to stop herself from laughing. "You're going to lose."

"So you're going?"

"I want to watch him kick your butt."

"So it's settled then?" Ham intervened.

Chelsea and I nodded in unison. "What time?"

"Tomorrow, noon, bring your game."


End file.
